Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) bucked the opinion of most climate scientists and Democrats when he discounted the existence of climate change in a New Orleans Times-Picayune story Wednesday.

The average global temperature for June 2012 was the fourth highest for any June since record keeping began in 1880. Land-only surface temperatures were the highest on record for the month. The combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces was more than 1°F above the twentieth-century average. June 2012 also marks the 36th consecutive June and 328th consecutive month with a global temperature above the twentieth-century average.

Scalise was commenting on the widely publicized reversal of Koch Industries-backed University of c who last month said he now believes “humans are almost entirely the cause” of climate change. Muller’s comments were discussed in a Senate Committee on Environmental Public Works hearing on the link between climate change and extreme weather.

"One Berkeley professor flip-flopping his opinion on global warming doesn't create any kind of consensus on this issue, and there's still vast amount of disagreement throughout the scientific community on the causes of climate change,” said Scalise, who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “In fact, recent scientific data shows that the earth is currently in a cooling period, and it's predicted that it will continue to cool over the next 20 years.”

But between 97 and 98 percent of publishing climate researchers believe climate change is real, according to an oft-cited 2010 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read more;